All Quiet . . .

For the first time in 1944 Moscow said: "No important changes. ... " The great Mud Offensive, which in seven weeks had swept from the Dnieper to the Carpathians, had ground to a halt.

But Berlin was full of apprehension ("a lull before a storm"). The Red command, it said, was massing troops from the Black Sea to the Pripet Marshes for a new all-out push, coordinated with the Allied invasion of the west.

To thwart this plan, the Wehrmacht dipped into its reserves, last week mounted a counterattack. German infantry, tanks, bombers struck at Narva, on the Baltic Sea; at Lwow, in old Poland; in the Carpathian foothills. But the Red Army, trained well in digging in, held its gains.

This week again all was quiet on the eastern front. But behind it Red engineers built roads and bridges, supply trains moved up in endless columns, fresh troops marched westward, for the next offensive. Where it would come few knew. Best guesses: 1) toward Lwow; 2) across northern Poland; 3) both.

At Sevastopol the Red meat grinder continued to chop up the remnants of the Crimean garrison. At sea, Vice Admiral F. S. Oktyabrsky's fleet waited for and attacked Axis ships as they tried to slip out for a desperate dash to Rumania, (last week's toll: 18 large vessels).

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